Alive and Kicking
by YeuxBleu
Summary: Rain awakes within an Umbrella facility. As time passes, her memory will return. She meets people she previously knew, and will eventually have to face a world full of zombies with an old companion. Complete, and a sequel is kind of necessary. R&R :


**Disclaimer: I do not own Resident Evil, and if I did, Rain would never have died, or at least she would be remembered more...or be brought back like I'm about to do.**

**Rain's Awakening**

Rain's dark eyes fluttered open, an unearthly brightness hindering her vision, and she screwed her eyes shut again. She gave herself some time to recover from the overwhelming light, then reopened her eyes and took in her surroundings. She found herself in an intensely white rectangular room. She was lying flat on her back on some sort of table placed directly in the center of the room. The hunk of cylindrical metal that kept the table level was protruding from the middle of a company's symbol, but she was unable to see it from her current position above it. Before her, in the wall dead ahead, was a long, probably unbreakable, window that was tinted on her side so that she was unable to see beyond it. Rain lifted her head, slowly, cursing the stiffness of her muscles; it made her wonder how long she had been wherever she was. As soon as she was propped up on her elbows, she noticed a sharp pain in every limb of her body. She sank her teeth into her bottom lip so as to keep from screaming, then looked down at her body, noticing all the cords feeding some sort of liquid into her at different locations on her body. She grabbed a handful of cords, and without a second's hesitation, she ripped them right out of her arm, then moved on to the ones in her side. She heard a rushing noise near her head, and placed a hand on her temple, palm grazing more liquid-filled cords. She gripped the plastic tips running in her head, and jerked them out.

After removing all the others, she slowly and shakily moved her legs over the side of the table, and gradually slid herself down. Her stiff and underused muscles had not yet fully rekindled, and so, when her feet connected with her floor, the rest of her body followed.

"Fuck." She muttered, pushing herself up steadily on her hands, carefully picking herself up from the cold floor. Just as she was rising, her knees bending so that her torso propelled slowly upwards, a flash of red and white caught her eye. She looked down, suddenly, seeing the symbol beneath the medical table she had recently been lying on. Her eyebrows furrowed; she could feel a slight resentment towards the sign, but couldn't remember why. Rain immediately turned her attention to the sealed door, and the keypad on the wall beside it. The keypad required a certain access code, one that she did not know, and a card to swipe; something else she lacked. She bent down and picked up one of the needles that had rolled in that direction after she threw it, and got back up, looking intently at the keypad. She slid the needle in the slot where the card was to be placed, and she jammed the point into the keypad, gaining access instantly. The door slid open, and she hobbled outside of the bland room.

Rain then found herself in a long and empty hallway, and realized that several windows that lined it were shattered and cracked. She narrowed her dark eyes and cautiously made her way down the hall, ready for any sort of trick or ambush. She carefully slid with her back to the wall, roving her eyes in every direction from every angle. The silence was eerie, and not knowing where on earth she was only made it worse. She froze when a strange noise met her ears, jerking her head in its direction. It was the sound of something heavy rolling along the floor, but she could tell it was nothing larger than battle of water. Unwilling to budge, Rain kept her eyes locked on in the direction that the sound escaped from, and she felt her still weak knees shaking. She wet her lips, slitting her eyes to get an enhanced view, but still, nothing came into sight. Creasing her eyebrows, Rain decided to turn around and continue with her escape from the strange place. Just as she turned her head, however, there was another face right in front of her.

The face was missing a lower jaw, and flesh was hanging freely from the mouth, and the tongue was dangling menacingly. The eyes that bored into Rain's were a pale blue, an unearthly color for human irises. The body was soaked in blood, though, it was unknown to her whether the blood belonged to the victim or not. The clothes were tattered and ripped up, several odd wounds lining the arms and neck. The horrific face lunged at Rain, catching her off guard, but she just barely countered the attack by slamming her palm on the creature's nose, forcing the ethmoid bone into the brain. The monster fell on its back, and Rain stepped over it, keeping hey eyes on it as she passed by it for safety measures. The body wasn't moving at all, or even making any attempt to her knowledge, so she quickly hurried on.

Turning a corner that lead in an unfamiliar direction, Rain narrowed her eyes at the gruesome sight she discovered. There were bodies strung along the floor, coated in blood and caked in gore. Several were missing heads, others, numerous body parts. One of the victims sustained a massive bullet wound in his forehead, leaving a gaping hole all the way through. Rain understood so little about the strange situation, but figured she shouldn't hang around long enough to put things logically together. She quickly walked by the mangled corpses and continued searching for some sort of exit, finding several other bodies along the way. Down one hallway, she found the mutilated body of what she thought to be an officer of some sort, judging from his black clothing, and noticed a gun to his side. It was unknown to her at the time whether the gun had any ammo whatsoever, but a weapon was a weapon. She reached for it, certain that the body would make no attempt to grab at her; it was obvious that the top of the spinal column was disconnected. She took the gun in her hands, ejecting the mag to check the bullets left.

"Good enough," Rain smirked, then forced the mag back into the gun with the palm of her right hand. When she got back to her feet, a horribly disfigured face loomed above her. She narrowed her eyes, brought the gun up, aimed it at the creature's disgusting face, and fired a single bullet. The brain was penetrated with ease, and the creature slumped over, falling to the floor slowly. Taking note of the condition the person's attire was in, Rain stripped them of their coat and shrugged it over her nearly nude form, then continued on. As she jogged along steadily, she zipped the coat up just below her throat, then placed both hands on her new metallic companion.

"H-Help...me,"

Rain slowed to a complete stop.

"Who's there?" She demanded, holding the gun ready, her black eyes scanning every inch of the area.

"Please, somebody," the voice seemed to come from the end of the hallway behind her.

Rain spun on her bare heel, pointing her gun defensively in the direction as she approached slowly. She pulled the hammer back, preparing to shoot as she rounded the corner. She felt something grab at her ankle, and immediately aimed the gun down.

"Please!" Pleaded the victim, who was now in plain view. The man grabbing her ankle was injured so much that it almost sickened Rain. His back was covered with torn flesh and coated with a thick layer of blood and saliva. His left leg had been completely torn off, or at least it looked that way. His face was also missing patches of flesh, and his blonde hair was matted with blood.

Rain's eyebrows creased in sympathy for the unfortunate man, but she kept her gun on him. Her finger tightened on the trigger, and she ignored the man's cry for mercy. Without much hesitation, she blasted a small hole in the man's forehead, and he crumpled in front of her.

"Poor bastard," Rain sighed, kicking him out of the way, then stepped over him. There was a bright light ahead of her, and she stiffly turned her head to the wall beside her. There, she found a plaque with an arrow pointing towards the light, and writing beneath it, reading: **Exit to Raccoon City Main street. **She had no memory of Raccoon City, but it was a way out, and so she took it.

She kicked open the heavy doors, slightly injuring her knee. Rain shrugged off the minor discomfort, and looked around at "Raccoon City." There was no city to be seen. Everything she saw was a wasteland. She turned around, looking at the place she had just emerged from. From the outside, the place looked worn and tattered, but the inside was moderately well-kept, save for the blood and broken windows. She bit her lip, still looking around at her new environment. The sun, which was directly above her, poured its rays upon her. Her skin had been unexposed to the sun's potent rays for God knows how long, and she could feel it. Of course, her arms were protected by the coat she looted from the creature she had killed inside, but her face, neck, and legs were all fully exposed. She needed to find more protection.

Rain began what would probably be an endless journey into the barren wastelands, that the information plaque in the medical center told her, was Raccoon City. Scattered scraps of metal and glass littered the otherwise clean sand, which gave Rain the idea that, perhaps, there was a city here, once. As she continued to walk, she noticed a rotted hand protruding from a sand dune, and from the looks of it, it had been there for quite some time. Rain tucked a long clump of hair behind her ear, her fingers lightly brushing the rest of her extravagantly long hair. She grabbed a handful and raked her fingers through it. She didn't know it then, but her hair had definitely grown during her time inside the lab. She didn't mind the length, though. It may have given her some heat issues, but it made for good sun protection for the back of her neck and such.

"What the hell happened here?" She wondered out loud, stepping on what seemed to have been the door to a police car. Suddenly, fingers wrapped around her ankle, and a force began tugging at her from below. She momentarily froze, but then angrily shook her ankle free, aiming her gun down as she took three long steps away from where she stood. The hand that had grabbed her lurched forward, followed by a grotesque arm, and eventually a full body.

"Wait for it," Rain muttered, keeping her gun pointed at the rising body. As soon as the horrid face was shown, she tugged at the trigger, and the monster crashed back into the sand, rolling down the side of the dune they had been standing on.

"Try to do that again." Rain taunted the now lifeless corpse with a smirk; she had spoken too soon. Without the slightest warning, more hands broke out of the sand dune, and dozens upon dozens of bodies followed them. Rain cursed her luck, looking around anxiously at the many disfigured faces. In order to conserve ammo, she made a run for it. The beasts blocking her path got what they deserved: a sift kick in the face, one powerful enough to severe the top of their spinal column. The headless monsters fell back, opening up a wide enough escape route for Rain, and she took it without any hesitation. Luckily for her, the creatures were slow, but nevertheless, they followed her regardless of their speed. She shrugged off the sick feeling that rose in the pit of her stomach, and walked onward. She noticed the unforgiving sand stretched out quite a long ways, and was not all too willing to go on for so long. However, the desire to find out what happened overwhelmed her, and Rain found herself continuing, anyway.

**Beginning to Recall**

"Fuck," she cursed, falling to her knees in exhaustion. She had been dragging her weakened body for what seemed like hundreds of miles, but her condition was what caused her overestimate. She tried to push herself back on her feet, but found herself unable. The heat was one thing, but dehydration was much more serious.

Off in the distance, she could hear something coming closer. She fiddled with the idea of it being her imagination, or the heat exhaustion playing sick tricks on her, but the sound seemed legit, and it was still coming towards her at a relatively high speed. However, in her very weakened state, she couldn't simply just drag herself out of the way. Whatever was coming, she was unable to avoid it. The sound was growing louder each instant, and panic rose within Rain. She desperately tried to move out of the way, but it was all in vain. As the sound neared her, she screwed her brown eyes shut, bracing herself for some sort of impact. The sound vanished, though, replaced by a high pitched squeak. She brought her hands to her ears in an attempt to drown out the intolerable noise, but it was gone before she even lifted her arms. Another sound met her ears. Something had opened, and there was a soft _thud _that followed. Rain picked her head up and looked over towards the thing coming. The familiar sound of boots meeting something solid filled her ears, and most of the fear she had harbored left her that instant. She heard a click; the fear returned.

"Are you infected?" Came a gruff voice, and the footsteps came closer to her. Rain didn't know what the hell he was talking about, and could barely comprehend anything he had said to begin with. "Well, are you, or aren't you? Have you been bitten?"

"No," Rain breathed, then a hand grasped her shoulder. Her poor vision could only make out a blurred face before her, but it was not a threatening one. The hand gently lifted her up, and she could feel herself resting in the arms of a man. The tightness of his muscles felt comforting, but the sound of his weapons and other dangling metallic objects clanking, was not. She then felt herself being placed on something level and solid. The next thing she knew, water was pouring onto her face and into her dry, open mouth. The liquid leaked down her throat, soothing the dryness of it, and she began to regain her sight. She blinked several times, and shook her head, still very weary from the journey in the sand.

"Where am I?" She asked, pushing herself up.

"In good hands," replied the voice of the man that had brought her in.

She felt a sudden jerk, and whatever it was she was sitting on began to move. The sound of a motor engine was heard, and she couldn't help but smirk.

_I was on a fucking road, this whole time? _She thought, keeping her indifferent smirk on her lips.

"What were you doing out there?" Someone else asked her, and she felt that person scoot up beside her. It wasn't the gentle man; it was a woman, this time. "All by yourself? Don't you know that's dangerous in times like this?"

Rain's vision was suddenly focused, and she could see clearly the woman talking to her. She was Caucasian, with very long and pretty blonde hair. Her eyebrows were well groomed, and she even had mascara on her eyelashes. Her dark brown eyes bored into Rain's, and she felt very uncomfortable.

"Beats me," Rain shrugged, turning away from the woman. She searched the area for the man, but her vision began to act up again, and gradually drifted in and out of focus. "Who the hell are you guys, anyway?"

"Wanderers," the woman said simply. "Scavengers; whatever you think we are. We keep to the roads during the day, and find safe areas to camp during the night. We've got a sufficient amount of food and other supplies, but whenever we can find a gas station or drugstore, we take what we can and get the hell out of there. We like to save as much ammunition as possible on every raid."

"All right," Rain nodded, looking down at her limply hanging hands. "What are those things? They've been attacking me every chance they get."

"You don't know? They've only been around for months, now!" The woman asked in disbelief, frowning at Rain's oblivious expression. "They're creatures that feed on flesh. A few months ago, Raccoon City, the origin of the damned plague, was completely destroyed. The first solid evidence given to the rest of the world was a tape that gave us all a glimpse of what was to come. But, the government, being the bitch that it is, led us to believe that the video was a hoax, and that the only thing that happened was that the nuclear power plant of Raccoon City experienced a meltdown, and everyone in the city was killed. The truth was revealed only a few weeks after the incident, though."

"So, the cover-up didn't last long," Rain said lowly, her eyes fixed on the ceiling of the moving vehicle. "That's a bitch. But, what exactly happened? How did those things start popping up?"

"I don't know where you've been for the past few months," the woman smirked. "But, those things are the result of a world-wide viral infection."

"World-wide?" Rain breathed, looking back down at her hands. "Fuck me..."

"The virus was produced in some underground corporation. You may know of it; The Umbrella Corporation."

Rain's eyes widened, and she couldn't tell why. She remembered the symbol back at the lab, the red and white umbrella-shaped sign. That was where she was? In the clutches of the Umbrella Corp? Armed with this knowledge, she felt her pulse race. If they were the ones that had caused all of this, then they could have done something serious to her. She couldn't tell why, but there was another reason for her uneasiness towards Umbrella.

"Something wrong?" The woman asked, putting a comforting hand on Rain's shoulder.

"I'm fine," Rain assured her, shrugging her off.

"The T-Virus, I think, was the cause of all this. Somehow, the virus escaped the underground corporation, and spread through Raccoon City, the city located directly above The Hive, which was a specific part of the Umbrella Corp. The contamination of Raccoon City was too intense, and so, they were forced to eliminate it, and all the evidence with it. They weren't aware that there was a video that reached a news station, which had broad casted the video live, and they had to quickly make their cover-up story public."

"But they didn't get rid of it all; it spread everywhere else." Rain finished. She hung her head down and sighed. "How the fuck do you get rid of a massive infection like that?"

"We don't know," the woman said solemnly. "All we can do now is kill as many as we can, which we can't even do. Like I said: 'We like to save as much ammunition as possible'. What's your name, anyway?"

"My name?" Rain asked, looking troubled. "My name..." The woman narrowed her eyes as she stared into Rain's face.

"Where exactly have you been all this time?" Just as she said that, the vehicle screeched to a stop, and Rain and the other woman fell forward from the force.

"Sorry!" Rain heard from the front of the vehicle.

She pushed herself up and maneuvered her legs over the open side of the vehicle, which she had just realized was a cargo carrier. She slid down from the opening, her feet landing relatively stably on the dirt underneath. She had a hand on the side for momentary support, then walked over around the large cargo truck. As she turned around the front of the truck, she jumped when she saw someone else standing there. He looked at her through his beautifully dark eyes and flashed her a grin.

"Jumpy?"

Rain's heart fluttered uncomfortably as he said this, and she was unsure as to why that was. The simple word brought back the ghost of a memory, of something she didn't understand. She knew all along there had been something familiar about the man; she just couldn't see what it was.

"You alright?" The man asked, eyes filled with concern, and he walked over to her and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. Rain's eyes scanned every inch of the man, but the one area that caught her attention was the ID label on his chest.

"J.D.?" She breathed. The name seemed so close, yet so distant.

"That's me," he told her, smiling at her again. "You have a name, don't you?"

"I don't remember," she said, and walked passed him.

Rain could feel J.D.'s eyes on her as she ventured from him, and it was a feeling she couldn't shake off. There was something about him that made her feel so strange. Her temple burst into a random pain, and she grasped her head in an instant. She was trying too hard to remember.

As she walked, she heard the driver's seat door open, and so she turned in that direction. No one was sitting in the vehicle, so the driver must have gotten out. She had not met the man that made the sudden stop, and she really didn't care. She was interested in the reason that the small group had stopped at this place. There wasn't much to see, and there certainly weren't any supplies to be looted.

"Why did we stop?" Rain asked, her normal, uncaring expression plastered to her face.

"Needed to take a piss and smoke break," replied the driver. He stepped around the front of the vehicle, revealing himself to the newest member of the group. The man was tall, around J.D.'s height, and his eyes were narrow with green irises. Around his forehead, a bloodied bandage was bound. His hair was dark, also like J.D.'s, but this man's was cut much shorter, almost like a buzz cut. He wore desert attire, which consisted of a long jacket, brushing his ankles because of its length, calf-high boots, gloves, a bandanna around his neck, and a t-shirt and jeans.

"The name's Hank," he said, extending his gloved hand to Rain. "You?"

"She hasn't the damnedest clue, Hank." J.D. told him, coming up behind Rain with a lit cigarette sticking out of his lips. He looked down at her with a smirk, then said, "We need to find something more compact for you to wear."

Rain had almost forgotten about the coat she wore, which just happened to be the only thing on her.

"Kit!" J.D. called, standing tall with his arm around Rain's shoulder, which was a good foot below his own shoulders.

"Yeah?" Replied the woman, Kit.

"You know about any stores up ahead?"

"Don't know," Kit said, jumping back into the cargo hold of the vehicle. She seemed to be rummaging through some heavy equipment, and when she found what she needed, a clicking noise met Rain's ears. "Ah, you're in luck! There's a K-Mart a few hundred miles west of here."

"A few hundred miles?" Rain frowned, stepping away from J.D. so that she could get a look at Kit's device. She climbed back up into the cargo hold and knelt down beside the woman, staring at the computerized map sitting on the floor. "Why can't we just head back to Raccoon City? That's a lot closer."

"Raccoon City?" Hank asked, climbing up with the two women. "The hell are you talking about? Raccoon City is about eight states northeast from here, lady."

"But that's where you guys found me." Rain told them, though her statement sounded more like a question to them.

"We're in Nevada; we found you a couple miles back at Henderson. Right now, we're headed towards Las Vegas, which is just northwest of where we are now. That K-Mart is sort of in the direction we're going, so it won't be much trouble making a stop there." Hank smiled, though his face grew more serious when he noticed Rain's expression. "What made you think you were in Raccoon City?"

"It's nothing," Rain assured him, and it was painfully obvious to everyone that she was lying. "Let's just get going, if you're all finished pissing."

J.D. couldn't keep the smile from forming on his face, and he walked away from the open cargo holder for the passenger seat up front. Hank opened the door to the driver's side and hoped in as well, turning the key in the ignition, and neglecting to buckle his seatbelt.

"Hang on, back there," Hank warned, put the vehicle in gear, and drove off west.

**Death in the City**

The cargo holder sped on over the sandy road in southern Nevada, heading straight for its destination without any stops along the way. The trip was bumpy, and rather uncomfortable, and although she couldn't remember it, Rain had been through worse. Much worse. The side door on the vehicle had been shut this time, since they were traveling at a much higher speed that the last journey. Rain had a warm blanket draped over her shoulders, courtesy of Kit, the kind young woman she had met after being found alone and dying of dehydration on a road back in Henderson, Nevada. Since then, she hadn't much time to get acquainted with her rescuers, but was grateful to them regardless. Rain had learned all three of their names: Kit, Hank, and one all too familiar J.D.

She still couldn't place her finger on when or where, but she had met J.D. before this. She recognized his face, his voice, his cocky attitude, and everything else about him. She so desperately longed to remember who he was, and how they met, but nothing came to mind. Everything before her awakening in the Umbrella Corp lab was blank, and she had no clear memories. Even the creatures and Umbrella Corp itself were vaguely familiar to her, as well, but she couldn't see why. Perhaps, in due time, everything would be revealed to her.

"Closing in on our destination," Hank yelled from the driver's seat up front.

The lack of windows in the cargo hold made Rain anxious, and a little claustrophobic. Everything was dark, cold, and unfriendly. There were crates filled with things, guns hanging from rails up above, and expensive-looking equipment set up almost everywhere. She felt out of place, and yet, so at home.

"Tell me," Kit said suddenly, almost startling Rain. "What happened to you?" Kit moved herself closer to the new groupie and gave her a worried look.

"Why should I tell you?" Rain asked, looking back with her apathetic eyes.

"If you're going to be a bitch after we rescued you, then I don't see why we should keep you around." Replied Kit, coldly.

"I really don't want to talk about it." Rain said truthfully, hugging her knees into her chest.

Kit's expression grew even more bothered. She took her brown eyes off of the distrustful woman and sighed. Kit understood that she would need more time with herself and the others, and that Rain's past would unfold painfully in time. A frown tugged at the corners of Kit's mouth, and she nodded her head at Rain's last statement.

"I understand," she said, and then moved away from Rain, and back to her computer. Just as Kit turned around, she heard Rain fidget and open her mouth.

"I was lying flat on my back when I woke up," Rain began, uneasily. "The room I was in was pitch white, and it was almost blinding, at first. I got out of there, no problem, but I wasn't sure where the hell I was. Those fucking zombie things were all over the place when I left the room. There were mutilated corpses strewn everywhere, too. I had no fucking idea what they were, but at the same time, I did. It's a bitch to explain, so I'm not gonna try. I took a guy's gun, then another guy's coat, and got the hell out of there. When I got out, there were more of them, and no sign of any _intelligent _life. I don't know how long I was down there, but I feel that I'm gonna find out." She told Kit, a cold grin forming on her face.

"There, was that so hard?" Kit asked with a sweet smile, then flew forward suddenly. The cargo carrier bolted sideways, out of nowhere, sending Rain, Kit, and the other two flying forward. Rain heard the windshield shatter, and a scream from Kit. The whole vehicle seemed to flip and land upside down on it's top. The motor died instantly, and Rain was left on her back, flat on the ceiling of the cargo hold.

"F-Fuck..." Was all Rain could bring herself to say as she rolled over onto her side. She picked herself up with trouble, and once on her feet, her arms were swaying painfully at her side. She stumbled up to the front of the truck and placed a hand on one of the seats. She poked her head up front, looking down at the mess. For some reason, the grotesque sight didn't phase her in the least. Hank's neck was snapped, and a huge slab of metal was protruding from it, severing his spinal cord and jugular all at once. There was no hope for the unfortunate Hank, and so Rain looked at J.D.'s seat, her heart sinking dramatically. The windshield she heard shatter came from J.D.'s side, and his body was missing, having flung out. Rain bit her lip, cursing him for not fastening his safety belt. She quickly turned around, hearing Kit stumbling over the fallen equipment.

"Are you alright?" Kit asked, placing a palm over her bloodied forehead. "Fuck..."

"Yeah, I'm fine, but we need to get that wound looked at." Rain told her, and helped Kit out of the cargo holder. Rain jumped down first, then held up her arms to help Kit down easily. Kit sat down, letting her legs over the side, and then slid off with Rain's arms steadying her as her feet touched the ground. As Rain helped Kit walk steadily, she just realized what a bad decision it was to walk by the driver's side of the car. Kit let out a sobbed scream when she saw the spattered blood on the window, and limp hand jutting from the broken glass, and fell back into the sand, ignoring her head injury and began to weep. Rain knelt down beside the mourning woman and offered her a comforting shoulder to sob on.

"It's gonna be okay," Rain assured her, stroking her blonde hair delicately. As she did this, Rain scanned the area carefully, looking for any trace of J.D., or any legit cause for Hank's crash. In front of the vehicle stood a large iron structure. One of the metal support legs had been the cause of Hank's death, and it was easy to see. On top of the supports stood a large, white spherical object, and the sudden impact cause it to wobble unsteadily. Rain noticed this through wide eyes, and suddenly grabbed Kit by the arm and ran several feet away from the massive collapsing structure. The sphere shook loose the support legs and rolled off, landing heavily on top of the cargo truck. At the contact point, cracks began to form. Rain had stumbled blindly over something as she lead Kit out of the way, and had to resort to dragging her friend away from the accident, as she had anticipated what was about to happen.

Rather than what she expected, however, the sphere opened up, and gallons of sand rushed out, covering the cargo truck, and most of the sphere itself.

"HANK!" Kit screamed, sobbing much harder than before. She could only imagine how awful Hank's body must have looked, then; crushed and covered with sand. Rain kept her arms around Kit with a sorrowful expression of her own. The force with which the sphere had crushed the truck could have just as easily, if not easier, smashed J.D. into the next life. She closed her eyes tightly, holding back the uncertain tears that had formed due to her morbid imagination. If she lost J.D. like that, she may never find out who he was, and whether he meant anything to her when the two used to know each other.

The sand began to move, and Rain heard a grunt. She opened her eyes with hope, staring at the accident sight. A figure was seen in the sand, and it was moving.

"J.D.?" Rain breathed, loosening her grip on Kit. She stood up, and in turn, Kit did, as well. "J.D.!" Rain cried, running over in the direction of the moving figure. Kit remained on the sand dune, watching Rain run down, horror-stricken. Kit had been with J.D. for months. She knew that wasn't him.

Rain slowed herself to a walk when she neared her beloved, a smile creeping to her sandy face. She reached out a hand to help J.D., and he took it, and that was when she knew something was wrong. The arm was grey, and missing patches of flesh. The fingers wrapped tightly around Rain's thin wrist, and the rest of the body rose to confirm Rain's fears. The creature let out an unearthly groan and darted its face at Rain, the mouth agape, teeth dripping in saliva. Rain brought up her free arm to grab the zombie's forehead, doing her best to hold it back, but it was getting the better of her. Both of them struggled, and it appeared that the zombie was triumphing. However, before it bit her, the sound of gunfire met Rain's ears, and the beast fell over on its side, no longer jerking. Rain turned around, looking up at the sand dune where she left Kit, and discovered another figure beside her friend.

"J.D.!" Rain breathed, a twitchy smile forming on her chapped lips. She ran up to him, throwing her arms around him as though she hadn't seen him in years, which made him grow tense for a moment, but he returned her embrace after a second's thought. "What the fuck did you do, you son of a bitch?" All profanity aside, Rain's voice sounded ecstatic.

"Nothing, really; I just flew out the window, pulled out my gun, and shot that fucker. What's into you? We just met a couple of hours ago, you know." J.D. smirked, pulling out of Rain's embrace.

"Sorry," she said, casting a contrite glance at Kit, who looked even worse.

"Where's your brother?" J.D. asked, turning to Kit, his confident smile fading. "I...I'm so sorry, Kit."

"Don't be," Kit told him, looking away. "Come on, now; we need to get to that K-Mart." She gave them one last look, then headed west, towards the abandoned town ahead.

"Her brother?" Rain frowned. "Fuck..."

"Yeah," J.D. mumbled, shaking his head as he thought back to Hank. "Come on."

Rain watched his back, briefly, as a memory suddenly struck her with full force.

_Rain aimed her gun around the corner before she turned, jumping at the sight. There stood a woman in a lab coat, leaned up against a large steel support beam. _

_"J.D., we got a survivor!" Rain shouted, and she approached the woman swiftly. "It's all right, ma'am; we're here to help." She told the woman as she came closer. The woman fell forward into Rain's arms, and she was caught steadily, and Rain looked her over thoroughly. _

_"You seem to be suffering some---Ahhh!" Rain shrieked, jerking away from the scientist as she __felt human teeth sink into her hand. She fell backwards, landing on her back with the crazed woman on top of her, still trying to bite her. She could hear footsteps approach them, and saw J.D.'s worried face out of the corner of her eye._

_"J.D., get her off of me, before I stab her ass!" Rain demanded, and J.D. complied immediately. J.D. tore the woman off of his companion and slung her to the ground, pointing his gun at her, then turned to look at Rain._

_"You okay?"_

_"She...She bit me, man! She took a chunk clean right out of me!" Rain shuddered, examining her wound. That woman had consumed a piece of her flesh; she performed an act of cannibalism. Rain glared over in her direction. That bitch was going down._

_"Stay down," J.D. said, keeping his attention on the woman. She rose up anyway, and began her disfigured walk towards the two of them. "I said stay down!"_

_"She's crazy," Rain scoffed, clutching her wound._

_"Come any closer, and I'll fire." He scowled, tightening the grip on his handgun."I mean it!" J.D. warned again, his brows furrowing in irritation. The woman kept on coming._

_"Fuck this," he muttered, aimed the gun lower, pulled the trigger, and took out the woman's knee. She looked down, then right back up at J.D., her mouth open, and an inhuman shriek escaped her throat. Without any hesitation, J.D. shot out her other knee, but she responded in the exact same way. _

_"Jesus!" J.D. cursed, then shot three more times, and his fire was soon accompanied by a much more rapid series of gunshots. Dozens of bullets passed through the woman's thoracic cavity, several piercing her heart and lungs, and she flew back onto a pile of rubber coverings. J.D. lowered his gun; Rain looked at the fallen woman, then looked up at J.D. with a content expression._

_"I shot her five times," J.D. gasped, still watching the woman intently. "How was she still standing?"_

_"Bitch isn't standing now," Rain muttered coldly, unrolling some bandage she took out from a compartment on her upper arm._

Rain blinked, her head and vision spinning out of control. After several seconds, she blinked and shook her head, and the dizzy feeling dissipated. J.D. and Kit were much further ahead now, and so Rain was forced to sprint after them, which is a difficult task in sand. When she caught up, J.D. turned around and flashed her a concerned look.

"What took you?" He asked.

"You," Rain bit her lip and tried to think of a good way to ask her question. "You don't recognize me at all, do you?"

"There is something about you that sort of," J.D. paused, thinking for a moment. "Reminds me of someone else, if that helps."

"Who?" Rain asked, a small gleam of hope reflecting in her dark eyes.

"Doesn't matter," J.D. assured her. "She's dead now, anyways."

"Who's dead?" Rain asked, tugging at his arm. "J.D.?"

"Why do you care?" He asked. Rain could see pain in his eyes, and released her grip of him, letting her arms fall limply at her side.

_Because, I remember you. _Rain thought, sliding her hands into the coat's pockets as she followed behind J.D. and Kit.

**Infection**

The town wasn't quite as barren as where Rain had been found. In fact, many of the buildings were still in tact. Kit had wandered ahead of the other two, death lingering in her mind. She had just encountered a glimpse of her dead brother, and the image wouldn't leave her alone. Rain had tried to comfort the woman, just as Kit had done for Rain when they first found her. Her consoling arms only did so much for Kit. The blonde kicked at every little scrap before her, shouting angrily at some pieces that she propelled many feet in front of her. She and Hank were siblings; they were close, and Hank met his end when hope was beginning to unfold.

J.D. looked behind himself at the perturbed Rain, who walked with her head bowed, and her arms swaying languidly at her side. He slowed his pace so that Rain would, unknowingly, catch up to him. He kept his warm eyes on her without her knowing, watching every little movement she made.

"I'm sorry," he coughed, looking back in front of him. "I didn't mean to snap at you back there."

Rain made a grunt for a response, and didn't even so much as look at J.D. She quickened her movement, passing J.D. easily. He looked at her back as she moved, frowning as she walked up towards the upset Kit. The memories that mysterious woman brought back were haunting, and J.D. felt that he had known her at one time. He wanted to believe that he knew her name, but no title could match her character that he could possibly think of. He clenched his fists and bolted up after Rain and Kit, smiling when he caught up.

"Let's hope we can find more supplies than just clothes, up here." J.D. said to himself.

The K-Mart that the trio was headed to wasn't in great condition. The large red K that had once stood in front of the store was now flat in the sand, cracks covering its glassy figure. Kit had stumbled blindly over the red glass, shouting profane words as she picked herself up and stomped into the store, pulling out a hand gun from her ankle holster. J.D. and Rain followed closely behind, their own guns in hand.

The dark interior of the department store was unnerving, and most things were nearly impossible to see. Rain and the others were certain that meeting a zombie, or several, really, was inevitable. Rain walked over to the women's clothing section solo, leaving the others to search for food and other necessities. She grabbed a white tank top, her sized bra, and some tight jeans. She tore off her temporary cover and slid on her new articles of clothing, then search for socks, gloves, boots, and a jacket. She found some socks and knee-high black boots not far from where she had been, and slid the socks over her cracked feet, and strapped on the boots. She grabbed a piece of torn cloth dangling from a rack and tied it about her neck, so that she may pull it to her face in case of some sand storm.

The most difficult part of her search was finding the jackets. She considered that it may have been summer, or that all the jackets had been looted. It was extremely hot out, but that didn't mean it wasn't mid winter. She heard something rattle behind her, and quickly spun around, pulling back the hammer of her gun, and aimed it towards the source of the noise. She approached with extreme caution, walking directly towards the end of the isle she had been in. She jerked the gun around the corner, then allowed her body to follow, jumping when she saw J.D. standing there. He had been looking through a sunglasses rack, and when he saw her, he flashed her a confident smirk.

"You may need some of these," he told her, tossing her a pair of sunglasses that were much too large for her face.

She gave him an unamused look, then dropped the sunglasses at her feet, walking up to J.D., but before she got there, a putrid arm wrapped around J.D.'s neck from behind.

"Ah, shit!" He shouted, gritting his teeth as he elbowed the zombie in the ribcage, forcing it to let go, then blasted a bullet through its brain. The zombie fell to the floor, knocking over the glasses rack, and J.D. kept his gun on it, breathing heavily.

"Jumpy?" Rain smirked, looking at him sweetly.

J.D. exhaled a deep breath and returned her smirk, kicking the zombie brutally in the neck as he lowered his gun.

"You definitely remind me of someone," J.D. said, then let out another shout. Teeth sank into his calf, causing him to jerk the leg away by instinct. He pointed his gun at the thing that had bitten him, and pulled the trigger, his heart sinking when all he heard was a _click_. "Shit!"

Just as he began shaking his leg violently, he heard a gunshot, and froze as if the bullet was meant for him. The zombie released her grip of J.D. and hit the floor, her mouth stained with fresh blood. J.D. looked from the corpse to Rain, a serious expression on his face. He was now infected. Rain quickly moved to his side, keeping her gun down at the two zombies. Just as J.D. had done, Rain gave one of them a swift kick in the skull.

"You bastards!" She shouted as she did so, ejecting the magazine of her gun. She raised an eyebrow as a sarcastic smile came to her lips. "Damn it; I'm out of ammo, now."

"That's alright," J.D. told her, throwing his own gun down beside the zombies. "There's got to be a pawn shop in this fuckin' town."

"Are you hurt?" Rain asked. She never saw the man receive the bite, but judging from his hyperventilation, he was suffering something.

"I...I," J.D. didn't know what to say. He didn't want to tell her that he had been bitten, because then she would lose trust in him. However, if he didn't come up with something to say quickly, she would get suspicious. "I'm fine; nothing to worry about." He smirked.

"What the hell happened?" Kit yelled from the K-Mart entrance. She was holding two guns in her hands, and two or three more were tucked under her arms. She smiled at both of them from her position. "Let's get out of here. We shouldn't be wasting this much time." She jerked her head towards the exit and headed out into the light, leaving the two alone once more in the dark store.

"She's right," J.D. said, getting a hold of himself. "We need to keep heading for Las Vegas."

"What the hell are we going there for?" Rain asked as she and J.D. headed towards the light-filled exit.

"Well, originally, we planned on stopping there for gas." J.D. told her with a low tone of voice. "Now, I guess we'll rest there. Night will be coming in a couple of hours, but I think we can make it in time."

Rain nodded, stepping outside of the building and into the fading light of the outside world. J.D. followed out right behind her, and dropped his jaw at what he and Rain were seeing. Zombies had completely consumed the small town, filling almost every inch of the streets and alley ways. Three guns dropped down in front of them, not at all startling them.

"You guys might need those!" Kit shouted from her perch on top of the K-Mart sign. She blasted away at the zombies, taking out large numbers with her two guns.

Rain and J.D. exchanged glances, then picked up the guns and began to fire. The horrible monsters dropped like flies as the trio opened fire at them, but none would back down, as it always was. Rain used great accuracy, scoring head shots nine out of ten times for every zombie she shot. J.D. and Kit were having similar luck, but not as precise. J.D. stood his ground beside Rain, covering every inch around both of them that Rain had neglected.

"There's too many of 'em!" Kit shouted, dropping one of her two guns as she focused on one. "We need to fall back!"

"No!" Rain shouted back at her. "We need to kill as many as we can! Otherwise, there will be more to deal with later! Even if we make it out of here, who's to say none of them will follow us?"

"I don't think you understand the situation," Kit screamed, dropping her last gun, then pulled a grenade out. "The longer we stay here, the less time we'll have to reach Las Vegas before nightfall. Would you honestly rather sleep here in Zombie Land all night? Watch out, by the way!" She warned, chucking the grenade out into a ring of zombies farther off. The grenade exploded on contact, blowing apart all the zombies within reach, and also taking out a number of them with the debris.

"Fine," Rain scoffed, throwing her gun at a zombie's forehead. "Let's just get the fuck out of here!"

"Ah, Jesus!" J.D. shouted, dropping his gun as a zombie sank its teeth into his shoulder. "Shit! Shit!"

"J.D.!" Kit and Rain screamed in unison, both blasting the zombie's face to a pulp. It fell off, and Kit began to run north, towards their destination, as Rain helped J.D. run by slinging his arm up over her shoulder.

"Come on, J.D., let's move!" Rain shouted, practically dragging him along with her.

"Just leave me, here!" J.D. pleaded, pressing his hand over the wound in his shoulder to try to slow the bleeding.

"N-No! J.D., we are _not _leaving you!" Rain breathed, still running with him, but J.D. tore away from her and stopped where he was.

"Just go! I'm infected, and I don't want to kill you or Kit!" J.D. shouted, tears beginning to stream down his face. "No one anticipated this, and now that it's happened, we have to make the least life-threatening decision. You and Kit get the fuck out of here and get Las Vegas; I'm not coming."

"J.D.," Rain sobbed, trying to pull his arm with her. "J.D., please!"

"Just go," he demanded, throwing her off of him. Rain got up, glaring at him, and shook her head.

"The fuck I am!" She sobbed, aiming her gun at him. J.D. narrowed his eyes in confusion, flinching when he heard the gun fire. His arms went over his face protectively, but no pain ever met him. He heard something land on the sand beside him, and realized Rain had just saved him another bite.

"You are coming with us, J.D." Rain said, extending her hand to him. J.D. couldn't help but smirk.

"Go," he told her. Kit came up behind Rain and grabbed her under the arms to restrain her, then forcefully pulled her away from J.D.

"You need to learn to listen," Kit cried to Rain, struggling to keep her away from J.D. "He's infected, and there's nothing we can do about it!"

"J.D.," Rain coughed as she was being pulled away by her friend. A horde of zombies piled themselves on top of J.D., and Rain continued to scream his name in her shaky tone. It was too late, and now that the zombies had something to occupy themselves with, Rain and Kit were safe.

No longer requiring assistance, Rain trudged along with an aggrieved expression on her sweat-drenched face. The sun was slowly making its trip to the other side of the world, Rain could see, and she pitied the ones on that side. Now blessed with light, they could behold the terror that plagued every corner of the planet.

Rain dropped to her knees, slamming her fists in the sand beneath her. She felt hot tears trickle down her face, leaking off of her chin and cheeks as the droplets splattered onto the earth. This had not been the first time that her friend had been carried off by zombies, and she remembered now. She remembered that, after opening a sealed door successfully, J.D. had been snatched by another crowd of the undead. It didn't seem fair to lose a person to the same reason twice. Rain couldn't stand to live with herself, knowing she left him for dead like that. She knew that there was only a small chance that J.D. would have survived after the bites in the first place, but using him to escape was the worst possible choice.

"You knew him," Kit frowned, kneeling down beside her pained friend. "Didn't you? Before all this?"

"Yeah," Rain nodded, sucking in her bottom lip to stop it from quivering. "Yeah, I knew him. I knew him well, at that, damn it!" She cursed, slapping the sand with her open palm in self-hate.

"There's nothing you could've done." Kit assured her, comforting her at least a bit. "Once you're bitten, it's all over. You have to understand that."

_Obviously not, _Rain thought. J.D. had come back from the dead. He'd been practically eaten alive by those creatures before, and he came back. Did he not? Rain absolutely couldn't bare to live with herself. She rose to her feet, her arms hanging languidly at her sides.

"What'll we do now?" Kit asked, though, mainly to herself.

"Get to Las Vegas," Rain replied, climbing the top of a nearby sand dune to get a better view of what laid ahead. "We can't be too far."

"I don't know about that." Kit frowned, reaching over the front of her body to grab her elbow as she stood there, watching Rain. "I think we left that town in the wrong direction. We're too far or too short in one direction now, and that's for sure."

"Great," Rain laughed in sarcastic amusement.

A loud noise erupted in the sky above them, causing both Rain and Kit to fall flat on their backs in shock. Bright lights combed the barren wasteland, several spotlights stopping after they discovered the ant-like figures of the women. A powerful gust was created by a dozen flying machines, which were all lowering into the sand below. Just as they were near enough, about thirty feet or so, ropes were thrown out from the sides of the monstrous creations, dangling over the women. Black figures slid down them with precision, dropping right beside Rain and Kit.

Rain was grabbed by the arms and restrained, cold iron cuffs clicking about her wrists. Kit, however, was simply knocked over the head with the butt of a gun, knocked out instantaneously. Rain glowered at the dark human-like things around her, struggling to free herself, but in vain.

"What the fuck are you doing?" She demanded, shouting over the loudness of the chopping propellers above. "Let go! Damn it, let go!"

One of the black suited men seemed to look down at her through the dark screen of his helmet. He roughly grabbed her up under the arms, pulling her up to her feet. Rain searched around, half-heartedly, looking for any sight of Kit. The blonde woman had been knocked out, and was now nowhere to be seen. She felt something cold fasten onto her wrists, which were now painfully positioned behind her back. The man led her over to a grounded chopper, shoving her into the metal beast. She landed uncomfortably on her side, clenching her teeth as she felt pain shoot up through her arm.

"What the fuck are you doing?" She demanded for the second time, glaring up at the soldier that climbed in after her. He removed his helmet, revealing himself as a slightly older, black man. He stared down his hooked nose at her, as though to intimidate her.

"You are infected," the man said, frowning at Rain's alarmed expression. "On a massive level, at that."

"I was never bitten." Rain shook, lowering her head slowly.

"No, you weren't; you were injected." He informed her. "Like an adrenaline shot, they injected a new form of the virus directly into your circulatory system via the heart."

"How come I'm not feeling any affects?"

"They probably haven't come up yet. You've only been awake for a few hours, and the limited movement of your body hindered the spread of the virus. It's a slow process, but it should begin to take affect shortly, which is why we were sent to recover you."

"You work for Umbrella, then, don't you?" Rain scoffed, a cold smirk playing on her lips. It was just her luck that she was caught up in this sort of mess. The gap in Rain's memory was almost refilled, and she could remember the kind of tests that the Umbrella Corporation had once commenced. Whatever they injected her with, it wasn't going to be something she liked.

"Affirmative," he replied, leaning his gun against his shoulder. "Umbrella dispatched this team to find and bring you to them. We were unaware that you were in the presence of another, but she has been taken care of."

"What do you mean, 'taken care of'?" Rain inquired, staring up at him apathetically. If they had done anything unnecessarily cruel to her friend, she found she might feel the need to lash out at him.

"It's none of your concern. However, you should be glad to know that she will not experience, to any extent, as much pain as you will. I'd be more concerned about myself, if I were you." He said, uncaring.

Rain felt her heart rate skyrocket as the man told her that. The things she remembered back to The Hive were now frivolous, and meant almost nothing to her, now. She had, in fact, seen J.D. killed and reanimated. She also remembered that she was the one to put him out of his misery. Even she, herself, had been infected, and her infection spread rapidly due to the several bites and scratches she had sustained during the entire mission. The train was the last place she remembered before awakening in the testing facility. She figured the infection had taken affect there, and that was the end of her story. But, obviously, it was not.

"Fuck Umbrella," Rain breathed, staring unsteadily at the cold floor beneath her. "Just blow my brains out here, why don't you?"

"Unauthorized," said the man. "Killing you now would mean more tests to be run by Umbrella with shorter notice. If you're going to die, it will be in combat."

"Combat?" Rain frowned, narrowing her eyes. "Who's to say I'm going to fight?"

"Trust me," he said lowly. "You will."

_"Rain," she could hear coming from her left. She had been to preoccupied to make any sort of response. She simply sat up on the pipe, dangling her dripping hand between her legs, allowing runny red liquid to leak into the crowd of creatures below. "Rain?"_

_"W-What?" Rain asked, her voice slightly hoarse and dry. She had never felt so awful in her life until now. She was bleeding profusely, and it never seemed to officially stop. _

_"We need to do something about your wounds." Said the woman beside her, the one that had been calling her name. She was staring at her bleeding friend, concern filling her unique eyes._

_"I'm fine," Rain lied, not even casting a glance at the woman. She was too fixated on the zombies underneath them, and the massive blood loss was making her weary and inattentive. The woman reached out regardless, immediately shaken off after grazing Rain's shoulder. "I said I'm fine!" Rain snapped, her breathing growing more unsteady due to her minor aggravation. She kept her eyes on the beings beneath her dripping hands. She tightened her grip on the bloody one, forcing blood to ooze at a much faster rate, watching it splatter onto the forehead of a lucky zombie._

_"You like that don't you?" She taunted, squeezing her hand harder. "You like the way it tastes, don't you? Huh? You like the taste of that!" _

The chopper landed smoothly at its destination, which had been unknown to Rain at the time. She was still on her knees, her back hunched over uncomfortably with her arms held behind her back, bound at the wrists with metal cuffs. The man, who had been standing beside her the whole time, jerked her up harshly, and slid open the side door as the pilot killed the propeller. He hoped out first, holding out his arms to catch Rain when she fell out. She rested her head reluctantly against the man's vest, furrowing her eyebrows since she was unable to lift herself away from him. Wherever they were, it was just a sandy and windy as Nevada. However, this place had a well-kept building placed off to the side of the chopper. It was obvious to Rain that, whatever the building was, that was where she was to be taken. She was shoved in front of the man, his hands firmly wrapped around her arms as he led her towards the building.

The memory she encountered during her seemingly long trip seemed to have no significance, at the time. She wondered why she picked that moment to reflect on something so minuscule, but could think of nothing logical. The man swung open the front door of the building, then forced Rain inside, slamming them shut as soon as he was sure she was in. Rain jerked her head back towards the door, clenching her teeth in anger.

"You bastard," Rain scoffed, looking back towards the center of the lobby she stood in. She could see that Umbrella hadn't changed its interior design much. There were four TVs, each one located at the top corner of each side of the room. Directly ahead of her, there was a long hallway, and to her left, a front desk. There were several chairs lining the room, so the TVs were obviously for the waiters in the facility. There were, however, no people waiting in the place, and from the looks of it, it had been that way for a long time. At the end of the hallway, she could hear several unsteady footsteps. She knew what was coming, and again, looked at the door behind her, only this time, her eyes were wide with fear. The black man was nowhere to be seen, and instead of some living company, a zombie threw itself sluggishly at the glass door, trying to bite her from its disadvantaged position. Rain bit her lip, turning to look back down the hallway, where dozens of the undead were coming at her.

"As soon as I'm done with these fuckers, I'm coming after you, man." She vowed with a cold smirk on her face. She kept her eyes locked on the lead zombie of the crowd, and charged at him with intense speed that she didn't realize she possessed. Because her arms were tied behind her back and useless, she would have to make use of her legs. As she ran, she made a pivot with her right foot, then bounded into the air, directing her stolen boot at the zombie's head. As soon as her foot connected, the zombie's neck crunched, and it hit the floor, no longer moving unnaturally. Rain smiled at this, then looked up at the other zombies. She had been too overwhelmed when she had first noticed the crowd, but now she could see there were only a few left.

As Rain worked on eliminating the last few walking corpses, all four of the TVs in the lobby flickered on. Rain, like any good S.T.A.R.S. member, didn't allow herself to be distracted, and continued her merciless onslaught.

"I see you are doing well, impaired as you are." Came a voice from the TVs. The voice was layered, due to a slight lag in sound, and so it sounded like an eerie echo as it rang in her ears. "I am quite certain you wouldn't have been able to do that before; not without suffering a few bites, of course."

"What did you do to me?" Rain demanded, kicking in the face of another zombie. Only a few remained, now, and they would soon all meet their official end. "That virus...the T-Virus. You injected me with it?"

She was furious when the voice did not respond, and thought it best to take her anger out on the few dead bastards. They all dropped dead with ease, and when the last one slumped over, Rain turned her attention to the static on the television in the far left corner. She walked up to it calmly, just then beginning to struggle with the handcuffs.

"You're not going to be able to break those, love." The voice said. "I've got the key, though. I suggest you seek me out." With that, the screens all blanked. Rain kicked at the air, angered by the thought of playing along with some sick game. With nothing else to do, she started down the hallway, turning the corner so that she could find him.

Being handcuffed never stopped her from turning around and trying each door. The problem, however, was that if one of the doors decided to open, Rain would be left open for any sort of attack from a zombie or anything else. She didn't care, though. She was already infected an a massive level; it couldn't get much worse, she reasoned. As her stiff fingers wrapped themselves tight around another knob, she heard a click, and the door creaked open. She turned around quickly, poking her head inside the lit room. At first, all she saw was a bed and a window, and there really wasn't much to the room. However, in the far corner rested another television, and static was playing on it as well.

"At least you're trying, but not hard enough, I'm afraid." Said the TV, and Rain could hear something within the room open. She heard something moving behind the door she stood beside, and she quickly ran out of the room, slamming the door as soon as she turned around.

"Fucking creep!" She screamed, running far away from the zombie's room. She felt her heart give a painful thud within her chest, and she came to a sudden stop, dropping to her knees. Rain had experienced large cuts and broken bones before, but she had never felt anything more agonizing than her own heart trying to rip itself from her chest. She had no idea as to why it was paining her so, but she knew that sitting around wasn't going to help her, either. She forced herself to ignore the pain, and rose to her feet, running unsteadily. The intense pain inside her chest never seemed to dissipate, and it only encouraged her to put forth everything she had in her search for the psycho. "I'm going to pass out before I find you." She shouted, smiling in spite of herself.

"You're almost here," said a muffled voice. "The next open door will lead you to me."

"Good to know," Rain scoffed, looking at the doors to her right. She slowed her pace, and threw her back up against the nearest door. She grabbed the knob, and turned it, but it wouldn't budge. She walked to the next door, and it was locked as well. Every single door left on that side of the hall had been locked, which made Rain anxious and annoyed. She moved to the end of the hallway, gripping the knob to the last door. When the knob turned, she felt very relieved.

Her relief came too soon, however, when she felt arms grasp her shoulder. Her eyes grew wide when she felt the familiar sting of human teeth sinking deep into her neck, and she let out a pained cry. She jerked out of the zombie's mouth, ripping its teeth painfully from her flesh. She gasped in agony, backing far from the zombie. Had her hands not been secured behind her back, she would've torn the undead bastard to ribbons. She glared at it, wishing she could reach the bleeding wound to apply pressure to it. The blood spilled profusely, just as the previous injuries she had obtained from the creatures' bites had.

"I did say the _next _open door, did I not?" The voice emitted from a metallic box on the zombie's neck that Rain had only just noticed.

"I don't see a point in continuing, now." Rain frowned, glancing down at the red liquid leaking from her wound, spilling over her shoulder and chest. "Unless, of course, you have the cure on hand."

"That's for you to find out," said the voice, and Rain butterfly kicked the zombie's head out of place as he did. The monster fell to the floor, and the box only spat static, then. Rain cursed her unfortunate luck, and quickly tried the remaining doors on the right side of the hall. The first two knobs wouldn't budge, but the third did. She pushed the door open, and darkness immediately swallowed her.

The room she had entered was so completely black that she couldn't even tell if she was walking normally. Rain felt herself walk into several sharp objects, but whether or not these things penetrated her skin, she could not tell. Finally, she felt flesh brush her arm, and at first, she believed it to be another of those wretched monsters. Whatever it was, it had grabbed her. There was no pain that followed, but she could tell that whatever had grabbed her was leading her towards an unknown destination.

Over the few minutes she was in the darkness, Rain's eyes rapidly adjusted, revealing the person to her. She could remember this person well. Her sandy hair, relatively pale complexion, tough grip.

"We will need to do something about that wound," the woman said as she continued to lead. "May be easier to shoot you now, though."

"I would much rather not get shot in the face again," Rain whispered with a smirk. "Who was that fucker, anyway?"

"He's dead," she explained. "Been dead, actually. That was just a representation of his voice. No matter how hard you searched, you never would have found the person."

"Where the hell are you taking me?"

"You want to stay back in there?"

"Well, no, but..."

"Just keep running," the woman ordered.

Rain heard a bang, and found that the woman had kicked open some sort of door at the end of their hall, or wherever they happened to be. She could remember the woman's features, but as far as her name went, she felt that she had never learned it in the first place. Once outside, once again in the godforsaken wastelands, Rain and the woman soon realized that they were utterly surrounded. The creatures were huddled around them in a swarm, their mouths open and ready to feed.

"_F-U-C-K_," Rain spelled out, scanning the area and looking every zombie in the face. "No way out of this shit."

"Come on," the woman said, running towards the front line, but stopped suddenly when the roar of a helicopter swept over the area, and enormous gusts of propelled wind hit them. Rain looked up, noticing two ropes dangling from the chopper.

"No, _you _come on!" Rain shouted, grabbing one of the ropes and began to pull herself up. At the top, a black figure grasped her shoulder and pulled her inside. As she was sitting on her knees, Rain could hear a gunshot, and grew stiff. The handcuffs slid down her sweaty wrists and clanked to the floor. "Fuck, man! Was that really necessary?"

"Oui, madame," was all he said as he pulled the other woman up as well. "Take a good look at those sick fucks below; you'll be the ones to eliminate them all."

The pain that Rain had felt within her chest returned, and she slammed her hands onto the floor of the helicopter.

"Ah, you are mutating." Said the Frenchman, approaching Rain's side so that he could place a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Yes, now is right about time for it to happen."

"Mutating? What? I was only bitten, so why the fuck am I mutating?" Rain asked, groaning as the sharp pain began to slowly spread throughout her entire body.

"That bite won't do shit," he said. "You are immune to the original T-Virus; you were injected with something with far more potential."

"Yeah?" Rain breathed.

"Oui, it is a sort of, how you say, _enhancer_. It will make you faster, stronger, and give you a high tolerance for pain."

"Wish that tolerance would kick in already." Rain frowned, holding both arms as if it would ease the pain. "Am I gonna turn fucking ugly?"

"Non, the only thing mutating are your internal organs and such. They are becoming a bit thicker, like the heart walls for instance. The thicker those are, the harder your heart can pump, and the harder it pumps, the more blood circulates, you see."

"Oh, that's great." Rain laughed sarcastically. "I'm an internal freak show now, huh?"

"Er," the Frenchman thought. "Sort of. My duty is to properly equip you and relocate you to a safer environment so that you may prepare more efficiently and deal with those brutes."

"You can't possibly believe that two people can destroy an entire world's worth of zombies." The woman frowned.

"On the contrary, my dear Alice, you will be surprised at how many you can take on. You defeated Nemesis with little trouble, and with Project Rain at your side, the two of you should be able to defeat a great majority. Of course, if you fail, there will be others."

"Joy," Alice and Rain said at the same time.

"We are nearing the destination," said monsieur. The pilot of the chopper looked back at the group of three and made some sort of hand gesture. "Hold on to something." The French said.

Rain and Alice grabbed on to the gun racks found on the sides of the helicopter, and clutched harder as the chopper began to make its bumpy descent. The side opened up, and the man handed Rain and Alice a great deal of weapons. Guns of all sizes, big and small, long and short. The larger guns were strapped to their backs, the smaller ones at their sides or on their ankles. They were also given a surplus of ammunition, several grenades, water canteens, and even Umbrella communicators. Alice and Rain jumped out of the chopper, landing safely on their feet in more sand. Alice cast a glance at Rain, and Rain returned it. Alice cocked one of her larger guns, and the two headed out.

**To be continued...maybe.**


End file.
